My father in law loves Halibut so snuck out after work yesterday to see if I couldn't get one to bring down to Bakersfield for him this weekend for his birthday...

Right off the batt I spooked 2 decent legal ones and missed the shots at them as they took off.

Then a big school of what sure looked like stripers whizzed by...took a shot and got one! When I got it in my hands though it looked weird...mullet?!? WTF!

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Didn't even know we had mullet out here?!?!!

Found this pic online that made me feel better about mistaking them for Stripers on the edge of my viz...

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Moved out deeper and saw two more butts that were obviously short...

Then I saw several big clouds of sand blow up...thought they were big butts spooking, but in a few more drops came across a group of BIG bat rays...I think that's what the blow ups were...not massive flatties that I spooked cuz I suck...

By now sun was going down, but I had brought along my dive light to be able to keep hunting after sunset...

Saw several more shorties hiding in the sand once it was dark enough to really see with the light...

Tons of baitfish came out once dark and were crashing into my light and mask!

Then finally I see one that I could tell was legal...blasted it and wrestled with it in the dark, got it on stringer and bled and gutted and kicked back to shore.

While walking backwards getting out I tripped over something...shine my light down and see a leopard shark bolting away!

Man, the ocean is so cool!!!

Few beers and pics at car, back home, filleted both fish, ate scraps for dinner and in shower by 11pm.

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Not a real big fish, but stoked to be able to bring something down for my father in law, and looking forward to eating the mullet as well...the scraps I ate raw while filleting were bomb!!

I don't even know where to start with the mullet post. I thought maybe you had cut your hair into a mullet and then shot a but?? Anyway that is a damn big mullet!! In Florida mullet are primarily smoked and are kinda seen as the fish only the rednecks or crackers eat. Definitely low on the fish snob hierarchy. In North Carolina some people rave about mullet and some say they are trash. The story seems to be that the ocean run mullet are good eats and the ones from the inland waterways and sounds taste like mud. Down here in San Clemente we have a good healthy mullet population. I see them most days when I am walking out to go surf at trestles.

I'm jealous over the mullet. I grew up eating smoked mullet in St. Petersburg, FL and despite what Joe said I wasn't a redneck. Was I?

There were a few smokehouses out near the gulf beaches. When I went back for my 40th high school reunion, a bunch of us who had moved out of state made a point of going to our favorite smoke house, which was still there after all those years, and eating some smoked mullet and cole slaw. The only difference was that we didn't have to use fake ID to buy beer.

Later when I was stationed in Texas and North Carolina, everyone thought they were just junk fish fit only for bait, so I had to cast net my own and smoke them in a covered grill on indirect heat. They weren't as good as the professionally smoked fish in Florida, but they were still pretty damn good.

If you want to try it, here is the way I would suggest cleaning them. Head them and then start from the back. Pick a side of the spine and cut down into the belly cavity, but not out through the belly lining, and then butterfly them. The fat pools down in the belly and keeps them moist.

I see them jumping in Dana Point Harbor now and them, and it makes me wish cast nets were legal in California.

When I used to fish with my Dad in Louisiana we saw them all the time but never targeted them, and when got em in cast net never ate them.

I have heard from a few other folks here in Monterey Bay that they have seen them up here before but not as common as they appear to be in SoCal...

Did Mullet Nuggets with Zatarains FishFry and a ChiliGarlicMayo dipping sauce.

Great flavor and texture and would for sure blast one again given the chance!!

No funky/off flavors at all.

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Did the butt's head/collars and tail as an app on the grill in a foil packet with some garlic cloves and rosemary and Tony Chacheres.

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Also had a small ab that I sliced up for sashimi and served in a shell as appetizer round two.

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Butt fillets cooked piccata style...the serving tray was small so sauce pooled around fillets, which wasn't so great for presentation but kept them super moist and was great to mop up with French bread.